Tag: Prof Wole Soyinka

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, on Thursday spoke on what is expected of President Muhammadu Buhari over unjust killings by herdsmen the country.

Soyinka said he does not expect Buhari to be shedding “unjust tears” but wants him to go against the “bloodthirsty terrorists”.

Speaking in Lagos, he said, “I get impatient when I hear things like Buhari has failed to go and sympathise with the people of Benue, with the people of Nassarawa, with the people of Dapchi or wherever.

“Who needs sympathy? Is it sympathy that will reorder their broken lives? Is sympathy the issue? We are speaking here of one commodity that is fundamentally human deserving, justice.

“There should an internal measure to avoid repeat. We are speaking here of a president that will respond with massive action and not showing up at the arena of human desecration to shed any unjust tears, but give orders that the bloodthirsty terrorists are brought to book.”

Revered playwright, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has said President Muhammadu Buhari is in a trance.

Soyinka, while reacting to a question on the three things he would tell the President if he meets him, stated, ” I will say Mr. President you are in a trance.”

He added that the sooner the President got out of the trance, the better for the nation.

Asked the form of trance the President was in, the Nobel laureate said, “I don’t know. So many unforced errors. Take for instance the suspended Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, Usman Yusuf, reinstated by the President.

“What is that about? What is going on?”

Soyinka had earlier held a press conference in Lagos on the state of the nation titled ‘Nomads and Nation: Valentine card or valedictory rites.

Briefing journalists at the State Secretariat in Abere, the Commissioner For Regional Integration, Hon. Bola Ilori said the summit is to bring youths across the Western Region together to generate ideas that would take the region to greater heights.

“The summit is to provide platform for the youths of western region, to come together and plan the future of the region. The script will be written by them on how this region will be by 20 years and that is why we call it “West 2040”. So it is to involve the youths in the planning of how the region will be by the year 2040.

“The Genesis of this was that all the Governors of the West met in July 23rd at Abeokuta where they resolved that they should be 25 years master plan for the region.”

Debunking the news that the Summit is politically motivated, Ilori said the Summit has no political undertone, adding that the Summit isn’t about political parties but about the future of the youths and the region.

“There would be no APC or PDP, there would only be the Yoruba Party of Nigeria which everybody is part of by birth. Also the decision of the master plan was taken by both APC and PDP at Abeokuta, it has no political colouration. It is a solution funding summit that we are putting together.”

“We want to build the culture of adding to the society, we want our youths to become productive and to generate ideas. We encourage our youths to come loaded with ideas because there be will official endorsement for their ideas at the Summit.”

Ilori added that the Summit would be tightly secured and that alcohol would not be allowed.

He thereby urged interested youths to register for the Summit via his facebook page.

Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, raised the alarm that some people are trying to use him to start a tribal war in the country.

He revealed this in Lagos on Tuesday as he castigated the social media on reportage of the wedding of his son, Tunlewa, to Nneka Ekechukwu, which took place in June.

Soyinka bared his mind at the Freedom Park, during the presentation of two books, “Between Defective Memory and the Public Lie” and “Green Cards, Green Gods,” under intervention six and seven series.

“There are people who think they can use me to start a tribal war in this country,” Soyinka said, recalling that such was not the first attempt as a lecture he delivered in Harvard two years ago was deliberately misreported to achieve such dastardly aim.

Soyinka, while condemning the reportage of the said wedding by the social media, said some people were trying to get at him by painting the wedding in bad light.

According to him, his son and Nneka had become victims of other people’s viciousness, querying whether it was a crime now for people to get married.

He decried the reports which put his son’s age at 20, marrying a 30-year old woman, describing it as a pure lie.

Some suspected herdsmen have invaded the residence of Wole Soyinka, renowned playwright and professor, in Ogun state.

The Nobel laureate disclosed this on Friday while speaking at a forum in Freedom Park, Lagos.

“We are living in dangerous times. My home is under invasion… From Imeko to Abeokuta is under invasion by herdsmen,” he said.

“This is a deliberate act of provocation. The trespasses have been frequent, we have reported to the police, but the government is taking security lightly. We need to wake up the government, let them know the seriousness of the issue on the ground; these herdsmen are worse than Boko Haram.”

Soyinka, who said the mentality of herdsmen had changed, advised the government to use a drone in tracking them.

He also opposed the establishment of grazing reserves, saying that would worsen the problem.

“Creating corridor for cattle grazing will compound the problem, I do not think that is the solution,” he said.

In April 2016, Soyinka had raised the alarm over the invasion of his residence at a time when he was abroad.

Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka, has called on Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, 74, to reveal the condition of his health after he spent nearly two months in Britain on medical leave.

Soyinka, who spoke in an interview with AFP at Paris Book Fair weekend, also said indigenous people had a right to assert themselves as a distinct people, even within a political and geographical zone anywhere in the world. “He’s ill, there’s no question, and I wish for heaven’s sake that people in public positions would just be honest.

“Illness is part of our existence. Buhari owes it to the nation and I don’t know why he and his advisors are being so coy about it,” Soyinka said.